Bishops and Bodies
228 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
1 color illus.
Paperback
Release Date:14 Jul 2023
ISBN:9781978828865
Hardcover
Release Date:14 Jul 2023
ISBN:9781978828872
Bishops and Bodies
Reproductive Care in American Catholic Hospitals
By Lori Freedman; Foreword by Debra Stulberg
Rutgers University Press
Winner of the 2024 Donald W. Light Award for Applied Medical Sociology, American Sociological Association's Section on Medical Sociology
One out of every six patients in the United States is treated in a Catholic hospital that follows the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. These policies prohibit abortion, sterilization, contraception, some treatments for miscarriage and gender confirmation, and other reproductive care, undermining hard-won patients’ rights to bodily autonomy and informed decision-making. Drawing on rich interviews with patients and providers, this book reveals both how the bishops’ directives operate and how people inside Catholic hospitals navigate the resulting restrictions on medical practice. In doing so, Bishops and Bodies fleshes out a vivid picture of how The Church’s stance on sex, reproduction, and “life” itself manifests in institutions that affect us all.
One out of every six patients in the United States is treated in a Catholic hospital that follows the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. These policies prohibit abortion, sterilization, contraception, some treatments for miscarriage and gender confirmation, and other reproductive care, undermining hard-won patients’ rights to bodily autonomy and informed decision-making. Drawing on rich interviews with patients and providers, this book reveals both how the bishops’ directives operate and how people inside Catholic hospitals navigate the resulting restrictions on medical practice. In doing so, Bishops and Bodies fleshes out a vivid picture of how The Church’s stance on sex, reproduction, and “life” itself manifests in institutions that affect us all.
Brilliant. . . . The trust Freedman built with her numerous interviewees is crucial, and readers are lucky they are willing to share their experiences. The book is full of compelling stories from patients and doctors, grounding Freedman's nuanced insights about the workings of Catholic health care. . . . It's all important. It's not a long book, and it is well worth the time spent. In nuanced detail, Freedman shows the dangers to pregnant and birthing people of a world in which medical care comes second to theology and politics, and those who carry pregnancies are treated as vessels. Many more Americans live in that world now, and all of us should be concerned about the consequences.
Freedman is a gifted writer: these narratives are superbly written, as is the book overall.
We would do well to study [Freedman's] work carefully . . . . Bishops and Bodies memorably demonstrates the power of abortion stigma . . . . While we have allowed ourselves to imagine abortion, and really all reproductive healthcare, as somehow distinct from other forms of medicine, Freedman shows this to be a mirage.
It’s a recipe for disaster—the Catholic Church wants the most births possible, and most American women want to limit their childbearing and protect their health with modern advances in contraception and abortion. Yet in the name of corporate conscience, our anachronistic laws allow Catholic healthcare to require physicians of all faiths to do things that violate medical ethics and often constitute malpractice. Freedman’s compelling research, rich storytelling, and incisive analysis reveal how outrageous Bishop-knows-best medicine really is.
Bishops and Bodies is poised to make a significant impact not just in social science and medical humanities circles, but in broader public conversations about health care, reproductive rights, and the place of religion in society.
LORI FREEDMAN is a sociologist, bioethicist, and professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences with the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Willing and Unable: Doctors’ Constraints in Abortion Care.
DEBRA STULBERG is a professor and department chair of family medicine at the University of Chicago.
Foreword by Debra Stulberg
Prologue: Unsafe and Unequal
Introduction: Doctrinal Iatrogenesis
1 Growth: How Catholic Health Care Expanded
2 Inferior: How Catholic Directives Contradict Medical Standards
3 Consumer Medicine? Patients and the Illusion of Choice
4 Emergencies: Patient Loss and Suffering
5 Mostly Above-Board Workarounds
6 Under the Radar Workarounds
7 Separation of Church and Hospital
8 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Notes
Index
Prologue: Unsafe and Unequal
Introduction: Doctrinal Iatrogenesis
1 Growth: How Catholic Health Care Expanded
2 Inferior: How Catholic Directives Contradict Medical Standards
3 Consumer Medicine? Patients and the Illusion of Choice
4 Emergencies: Patient Loss and Suffering
5 Mostly Above-Board Workarounds
6 Under the Radar Workarounds
7 Separation of Church and Hospital
8 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Notes
Index
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